orange spot bristlenose

If you’re new to keeping Bristlenose Catfish you may already be aware that the term Bristlenose refers to the Genus known as Ancistrus. This is a group (or Genus) of Catfish that is made up of many species of which the most common is known as Ancistrus sp cirrhosus or the Common Bristlenose. After that though the rest of the genus is made up of a number of common names, species names and of course the L numbers. So depending on who you are talking to or what reference you are consulting you could be presented with either an L number, a common name, species name or a combination of names to describe just one Ancistrus sp of Catfish.

Sound confusing? Well I know I was confused to start off with, so having a curious mind I decided to set out to get to the bottom of how the different names all fit together. So here’s what I discovered.

Firstly, Bristlenose Catfish are also known as Bristlenose Plecos as well, depending on where in the world you come from. So just for the sake of not making the topic any more confusing than it needs to be I’ll use the term Catfish for this article.

Therefore, as I’ve already stated, the Common Bristlenose is known as Ancistrus sp cirrhosus. Up until recently though this species was incorrectly known as Ancistrus sp dolichopterus, which is in fact a totally different species of Ancistrus. Therefore be careful as you may find some older references that still refer to cirrhosus as dolichopterus.

So what you’ll find is Ancistrus sp cirrhosus is the Bristlenose that’s most commonly found in live fish shops and is sold as algae eaters for large community tanks. Ancistrus sp cirrhosus is usually brown with spots but you can also find Albinos as well. Then to divide the species up even further there are shortfin and longfin varieties each of which come in the normal brown colour and the albino colour as well.

Therefore within the species cirrhosus you’ll commonly find that the different varieties are referred to as;

Common Bristlenose – brown shortfin

Albino Bristlenose – albino shortfin

Common Longfin – brown longfin

Albino Longfin – albino longfin

Then you can also get a Marble variety, plus other colour varieties as well.

Next up, what do the L numbers refer to?

Well for starters L numbers are given to species that haven’t yet been scientifically classified and as such not yet assigned a specific species name. Some of the L number Bristlenoses are species in their own right while others are variations of existing species and may in fact be sub-species.

What you’ll also find is L numbers are assigned throughout the family Loricariidae which consistsof several Genera (plural for Genus) of which the Ancistrus genus is just one.Therefore for the sake of simplicity(as if it already isn’t confusing enough)we’ll only deal with L numbers here that relate to the Genus Ancistrus.

What you’ll find is some L numbers are simply known as Ancistrus sp, some have been assigned several L numbers, some have a common name as well and others have been assigned a species name.

List of L numbers for the Species Ancistrus

L-number

Alternative L- or LDA-numbers

Scientific name

Common name(s)

L032

Ancistrus sp.

L034

Ancistrus ranunculus

Medusa pleco

L043

Ancistrus sp.

L045

Ancistrus sp.

L059

Ancistrus sp.

L071

L181, L249

Ancistrus sp.

L088

Ancistrus sp.

L089

Ancistrus sp.

L100

LDA75

Ancistrus sp.

L107

L184

Ancistrus sp.

Brilliant bristlenose pleco

L110

L157

Ancistrus sp.

Red spot bristlenose

L111

Ancistrus sp.

L120

Ancistrus sp.

Black fin bristlenose

L125

L150

Ancistrus sp.

L144

Ancistrus sp.

Black eyed yellow

L148

Ancistrus sp.

L149

Ancistrus sp.

L150

L125

Ancistrus sp.

L156

Ancistrus sp.

L157

L110

Ancistrus sp.

Red spot bristlenose

L159

Ancistrus sp.

L180

Ancistrus sp.

L181

L071, L249

Ancistrus sp.

Peppermint bristlenose

L182

Ancistrus hoplogenys

Starlight bristlenose pleco

L183

Ancistrus dolichopterus

Starlight bristlenose catfish

L184

L107

Ancistrus sp.

Brilliant bristlenose pleco

L213

Ancistrus sp.

L237

Ancistrus sp.

L249

L071, L181

Ancistrus sp.

L255

Ancistrus sp.

Spotted medusa pleco

L267

Ancistrus sp.

L279

LDA58

Ancistrus sp.

L289

Ancistrus sp.

L292

Ancistrus sp.

L293

Ancistrus sp.

L304

Ancistrus sp.

L309

Ancistrus sp.

L325

Ancistrus sp.

L327

Ancistrus sp.

L338

LDA16

Ancistrus sp.

L344

Ancistrus sp.

L349

LDA45

Ancistrus sp.

L352

Ancistrus sp.

L355

Ancistrus sp.

L357

Ancistrus sp.

L359

Ancistrus sp.

L369

Ancistrus sp.

L370

Ancistrus sp.

L378

Ancistrus sp.

L392

Ancistrus sp.

L393

Ancistrus sp.

L396

Ancistrus sp.

Next up is a list of Ancistrus species names. Some of these species also have common names, some still have L numbers as well, while others are just referred to by their species name. Here’s a list of Ancistrus that have been classified and given species names. (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancistrus)

Ancistrus Sp

Ancistrus aguaboensis

Ancistrus galani

Ancistrus montanus

Ancistrus bodenhameri

Ancistrus gibbiceps

Ancistrus multispinis

Ancistrus bolivianus

Ancistrus gymnorhynchus

Ancistrus nationi

Ancistrus brevifilis

Ancistrus heterorhynchus

Ancistrus nudiceps

Ancistrus brevipinnis

Ancistrus hoplogenys

Ancistrus occidentalis

Ancistrus bufonius

Ancistrus jataiensis

Ancistrus occloi

Ancistrus caucanus

Ancistrus jelskii

Ancistrus parecis

Ancistrus centrolepis

Ancistrus latifrons

Ancistrus pirareta

Ancistrus chagresi

Ancistrus leucostictus

Ancistrus piriformis

Ancistrus cirrhosus

Ancistrus lineolatus

Ancistrus ranunculus

Ancistrus claro

Ancistrus lithurgicus

Ancistrus reisi

Ancistrus clementinae

Ancistrus macrophthalmus

Ancistrus spinosus

Ancistrus cryptophthalmus

Ancistrus maculatus

Ancistrus stigmaticus

Ancistrus cuiabae

Ancistrus malacops

Ancistrus tamboensis

Ancistrus damasceni

Ancistrus maracasae

Ancistrus taunayi

Ancistrus dolichopterus

Ancistrus marcapatae

Ancistrus temminckii

Ancistrus dubius

Ancistrus martini

Ancistrus tombador

Ancistrus erinaceus

Ancistrus mattogrossensis

Ancistrus trinitatis

Ancistrus eustictus

Ancistrus megalostomus

Ancistrus triradiatus

Ancistrus formoso

Ancistrus minutus

Ancistrus variolus

Ancistrus fulvus

Ancistrus verecundus

Therefore as you can now see, there are several ways to identify members of the Genus Ancistrus aka Bristlenose Catfish. Some are know only by their common name, some by their species name, some only by an L number and others by a combination of these.

Therefore just in finishing, to give just one more example of how the names can be confusing, consider this Bristlenose, known in Australia as the “Orange Spot Bristlenose”. Some enthusiasts believe it to have the L number of L 110 which is commonly known as the Red Spot Bristlenose others refer to it as the species Ancistrus sp leucostictus, both of which appear unlikely. To the best of my research though, the most likely name is Ancistrus sp. `Rio Ucayali`. Therefore you make up your own mind and if you like leave a comment below. Maybe you have another suggestion.

What you can see though, is how these common names (and L numbers) can vary from country to country as it’s only in Australia that this particular Bristlenose is known as the Orange Spot Bristlenose.

So hopefully you now have a much clearer idea of why there is no uniformity in the Ancistrus sp. The genus is quite large and there are still many species yet to be scientifically classified. Nevertheless you should now have a much better idea of how all these Ancistrus sp names fit together.